


oshiete

by orphan_account



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Gen, I'm writing a lot because when the inspiration droughts hit they tend to last for months to years, so best get em out while I can lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-09-27 19:04:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20412793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: It had only been barely a week. “One week” in the scope of “the rest of his life” was a terrifying realization. Kimi had all reassured him and Touka that the crying would eventually come to an end, but he wasn't so sure. If he was lucky, he might go deaf. Until then the tiny terror that resided in her room was going to continue to keep him in the shallow end of sanity.





	oshiete

Ken was firmly convinced of at least one thing: if the cries of his newborn daughter could have been used as a torture tactic in Cochlea, there would have been no secret the now-disbanded facility could have not unveiled.

Furthermore, he was positive he was going to go insane.

It had only been barely a week. “_One week_” in the scope of “_the rest of his life_” was a terrifying realization. Kimi had all reassured him and Touka that the crying would eventually come to an end, but he wasn't so sure. If he was lucky, he might go deaf. Until then the tiny terror that resided in her room was going to continue to keep him in the shallow end of sanity.

He tried to be a good husband– he really did. Touka was the love of his life and he would do anything for her, even if that meant going without sleep so she could rest just a bit more.

The light from his laptop screen was set to the dimmest setting. Ichika had been asleep for a full thirty minutes, which meant that she would probably wake up again in another ten and start trying to summon demons from the pit of Hell with her screams.

Touka was stretched out on the bed next to him, already asleep from her exhausting day. She had been left alone with the baby for the entire day while he had attended a GOAT meeting.

But Ken couldn’t sleep yet. He had to seize whatever few precious moments of silence he had remaining and take advantage of them. He scrolled through the whole arsenal of Youtube videos he had ‘liked’ to keep track specifically for free moments like this.

**Top Ten Ways to Get Your Baby Back to Sleep – Number 5, Singing!**

Out of everything he had seen so far – essential oil diffusers and all – this should have been the one he was able to think of on his own. Of course, he was also exhausted – so maybe his stupidity could be excused.

He glanced over at Touka with a tender smile. She was hardly better off than him. Most of the time when he came home she was just as bad off as he was, if not worse. If she sat down for too long she would fall asleep almost instantly, which made spending any time together almost impossible. Still, she seemed to be handling it better. She always did have more strength than him.

He started typing another search term into the Youtube bar: **Lullabies to sing your child to sleep.**

He didn’t get any further than that. He didn’t even get to hit ‘enter’. The wailing had begun, and he could hear it through the thin walls of their apartment so clearly that the baby might as well have been wrapped around his head.

Ken massaged the bridge of his nose. His eyes ached and his head was pounding, and suddenly all of his motivation to move was sucked out of his body at the sound.

What jump-started him again was feeling Touka stir next to him. Ken looked over at her, lowering his hands in concern, already taking hold of his laptop and moving it to the desk that was set up beside their bed.

“Don’t worry,” she sounded alarmingly awake for someone who had their face buried in a pillow, drooling only a few seconds prior. “I’ve got this. Don’t worry about it.” Her voice was soft, and he waited for her to follow that up with some playful, but biting statement. _“Don’t worry about it. I’ll go get her. After all, it isn’t like I carried her for nine months __and spent fifteen hours in labor pushing her out __-!”_

If he had to be reminded one more time about how the reproductive system worked and then be on the receiving end of the implication that this was entirely his fault, he was going to fizzle out in a puff of stress.

This night was important, this night was different. This night he had solved the riddle, he had cracked the code, and he was going to put it into action. He had to take care of this. It was his opportunity to prove to the universe that he was worthy of his family and that he wasn't floundering around without a clue of how any of this worked.

He stood, feeling a bit like his past self about to march into battle. If only he still had his mask.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, giving Touka a reassuring smile. “I will take care of it tonight. You just get plenty of rest, okay?”

_I've got this. I've got you. I've got us._

Touka lifted an eyebrow in surprise – but she was in no position to complain. Slowly she stretched out again on the bed and buried her hands underneath the pillow to pull it closer to her middle as she curled up. That answered that, then.

Ken made his way into the hall. His daughter’s siren-like wail was bouncing off the walls. It was like heading into a war-zone. He half expected a quinque to go whirring past his ear.

He opened the cracked door quietly and stepped into the room.

“Hey, Flower,” he cooed the child’s nickname softly, sliding his hands under his daughter – one under her head to support it and one against her trembling back. That did not dim her cries at all. She wasn’t hungry and she didn’t need a changing, she just needed a little attention. He pulled her up and close to his chest, rocking her back and forth a little bit in his arms. He started humming something innocuous, racking his brain for a tune that might calm a baby. He couldn’t think of any lullabies. He decided to go for what he knew and could easily repeat. That seemed to be the easiest route.

It wasn’t a happy song. Actually, it was rather tragic and spoke of a person becoming overwhelmed and unraveling under the pressures of their changed life – but it wasn’t like the wailing baby knew that. It was the first thing to spring to his lips, and somehow it seemed to work. The chorus parts, in particular, caught her attention and she quieted near-instantly, staring up at him with large, watery eyes throughout the rest of the song.

When he reached the end and her lip began to quiver Ken repeated the entire song a few more times, enthusiastic with how responsive she was. She began to still enough to let her little eyelids droop until they shut softly and her tiny mouth opened in deep slumber. He settled her back down in her crib, pressing a kiss to her soft, wrinkled forehead.

“She is going to grow up to like the same sad, shitty music you do if you keep on like that, you know.”

Ken froze. He had no idea that Touka was even standing behind him. He smiled sheepishly and turned on his heel to face the door. She folded her arms, leaning against the door frame as she looked up at him, a smile curving the corners of her lips. Her eyes were tired but they were full of love as well.

“I thought I told you to sleep,” he pretended to sulk before breaking out his smile. “And who says it’s a bad thing for her to be like her papa?”

“Mm,” his wife turned to go back to their bedroom, glancing over her shoulder at him coyly. “God help us both if she turns out like you. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I think it's time for both of us to get some sleep.”

He agreed. His victory had left him even more exhausted. He fell into step behind her, taking hold of the door behind him and drawing it to a gentle close, leaving it cracked just enough that they would hear her when she woke up again.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Kaneki was singing Unravel in case the title didn't already clue you in. I couldn't help it, I had to.


End file.
